Police Arrest 2 Teens in Ga. Baby Killing

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Police arrested two teenagers Friday who are suspected in the shooting death of a baby in a stroller and the wounding of the baby’s mother during an attempted robbery.

Seventeen-year-old De’Marquis Elkins is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, along with a 14-year-old who was not identified because he is a juvenile, Police Chief Tobe Green said.

Police announced the arrest Friday afternoon after combing school records and canvassing neighborhoods searching for the pair. The chief said the motive of the “horrendous act” was still under investigation and the weapon has not been found.

The mother, Sherry West, wept Friday while she told The Associated Press that she pleaded with the gunman and a younger accomplice who approached her Thursday morning while she walked near their home in coastal Brunswick.

“He asked me for money and I said I didn’t have it,” she said. “When you have a baby, you spend all your money on babies. They’re expensive. And he kept asking and I just said ‘I don’t have it.’ And he said, ‘Do you want me to kill your baby?’ And I said, ‘No, don’t kill my baby!'”

West said the gunman fired four shots, the first into the ground. West didn’t see a shell casing ejected, and said she assumed the gun wasn’t real.

Then he fired at her head and the bullet grazed her left ear — she has a small scab and bruising there. He fired again and shot her in the left leg above the knee. “I didn’t know I was hurt.”

“The boy proceeded to go around to the stroller and he shot my baby in the face,” she said. “And then he just shoved me when I started screaming and he ran down London Street with the little boy.”

The mother lives in a rented house in the city’s Old Town historic district. Beverly Anderson’s husband owns the property and she said West has lived there for six or seven years.

“We’re just very sorry about what happened and very aghast that something could happen in our little neighborhood,” Anderson said. “It’s a quiet, safe little neighborhood.”